Elon Musk and Sam Altman appeared in federal court together for the first time Tuesday as they battled over the decade-old evolution of OpenAI and what it means for the company’s future.
Musk’s lawsuit against Altman could result in financial damage and, more importantly, management changes at OpenAI that could complicate its plans for an initial public offering as soon as this year.
As the first witness on the stand, Musk quickly sought to frame his case as more than just OpenAI. Working with Altman “will give license to plunder every charity in America” and shake “the whole foundation of charity,” Musk told the nine-judge panel advising US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on how to handle it.
Musk has been concerned about computers being smarter than humans “since he was a young man in college,” his attorney Steven Molo told jurors. Molo explained that Musk lobbied governments to pass laws addressing so-called artificial intelligence, including a meeting with then-president Barack Obama in 2015. “But the government was not standing up,” said Molo. “Elon felt he had to do something.”
Around the same time, Musk met Altman, a 30-year-old former investor, who he “didn’t know very well,” Molo said. They soon launched OpenAI together as a non-profit organization. Google’s unchecked progress in AI development caused concern for both the founders of OpenAI, and they wanted to create a competing lab focused more on security. “My opinion is [OpenAI] It exists because Larry Page called me a humanitarian,” said Musk, referring to the founder of Google. The open source nonprofit organization.”
While Musk believes that AI can cure disease and create prosperity for humans, he also told the court that he thinks the technology could turn into a disaster and out of science fiction. “It could also kill us all … the Terminator the result. I think we want to be in the movie … like him Star Treknot a James Cameron movie,” Musk said.
As OpenAI began to realize some of its successes, Musk and Altman agreed that a for-profit arm with consistent returns for investors was needed to raise the large sums of money needed to fund recruitment and computing operations, according to Molo. He compared it to a non-profit museum that gets some money from a for-profit store. “I was not opposed to there being a small amount of money to make a profit as long as the tail doesn’t wag the dog,” said Musk on the stand.
Musk felt that this approach had gone too far when Microsoft, another defendant in the case, agreed to invest 10 billion in 2023, and OpenAI increasingly moved intellectual property and employees to the company for profit. “The museum shop sold the Picassos so they were locked up where no one could see them,” said Molo.
Opposition to OpenAI
William Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI, told the jury that OpenAI never promised Musk that it would remain non-profit and publish all of its code. “The available evidence will show that what Musk says happened did not happen,” Savitt said.
He added that Musk knew about the plans to increase the investment of companies exceeding 10 billion dollars from 2018. Musk even raised concerns about Microsoft’s involvement in a 2020 tweet. But he didn’t file a lawsuit until he launched a rival, xAI, in 2023.
